This invention relates generally to viewable marking devices, and more particularly to a resilient viewable distance marker for use in golf courses along the length of a fairway.
Knowing the distance of a golf ball from a particular position on a fairway after being struck from a tee is quite important in the game of golf. This information not only provides the golfer with feedback as to the length of his initial drive from the tee, but also provides immediate information as to the distance from ball placement to the green of that particular fairway. When it is likely that, on the golfer's next shot, he will reach the green, this information becomes of even more importance.
One device known to applicant which serves this function is in the form of a concrete disc buried in the ground flush with the ground's surface so that mowing machines may pass thereover without damage. Other objects used for this purpose are stakes or shrubbery planted on each side of the fairway in the rough away from normal mowing operations.
These above devices are unsatisfactory for their intended use. The concrete discs are difficult to see from any distance and typically result in delay of the game as a player searches for the marker. Likewise, shrubbery and stakes planted in the rough are often damaged or knocked down despite careful mower operator avoidance maneuvers.
Applicant is also aware of one prior art device disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,067,717 to Imparato which teaches a portable resilient marker having a coiled spring member positioned just above the ground level as a lower extension thereof is embedded in the ground. However, this device would clearly become damaged or destroyed the first time that a fairway mower passes over it. Therefore, this device would require removal during normal mowing operations.
Confronted with this problem, and being aware that a reel-type mower in either single or gang form is used for fairway mowing, the present invention is intended to provide a device which clearly satisfies this need and takes advantage of the inherent structural features of these reel-type mowers. A visual distance marker is provided which is embedded or buried within the ground on the fairway having an upwardly extending marker strip which is of sufficient width when placed generally transversely to the length of the fairway so as to be viewable by a golfer from a significant distance there from. Additionally, the marker strip, being resilient in one direction because of its thinness, will be resiliently deflected downwardly against the ground as the mower is passed thereover and then returning to its generally upright position thereafter without damage or the need for removal.